Monday, March 3, 2008

We have had a very busy week cleaning the church, doing service, attending meetings, and visiting part members. The church house is starting to look and smell better now and the members are starting to notice. Kenneth and Steve Perry fixed the leaking roof that has been leaking for over 2 years. That makes a huge difference. We have also been hanging up art work and vacuuming and cleaning. It is nice to feel like the Lord's Spirit can be more abundantly felt by everyone there now.We also had a wonderful meeting with Elder Neil L. Anderson of the Presidency of the Seventy on Friday. I thought you all might be interested in a few of the things he had to say. He talked about the fast growth of the Church in many of the areas of the world. He said that last year in Brazil they had 47,000 converts. There are now 75 stakes in Mexico City itself. He also said that President Hinckley opened up the Philippines to missionary work in 1961 and now there are 700,000 members of the church there. He also stated that when they rededicated the San Paulo, Brazil Temple they had 60,000 members at the dedication. He told us that a favorite saying in missions in Europe is, " EVERYTIME WE KNOCK ON A DOOR IN EUROPE, THEY BAPTIZE SOMEONE IN MEXICO," so stick with the theme of missionary work, which is, " Work, Work, Do Your Duty! Read the Book of Mormon and Finish your mission with Honor!"Having President Uchtdorf in the First Presidency will be a great thing for Europe. Internationally, the church's greatest days are ahead. The Prophet Joseph Smith said, " This church will cover all of North and South America. It will cover all of the World." There are missionaries in almost every country of the world now.He answered questions from the missionaries and was so humble and sweet with them. I was so impressed. Our missionaries work so hard here. They are obedient and we are truly learning to love them, as well as feed them, administer medicines and advice to them, comfort them, and give them a warm spot when they need it. Right now we have missionaries from Sweden, Germany, England, and Spanish Fork, Utah that we work with here in our ward. All in all, it was a great day. There were about 80 missionaries there and three senior couples. We are well and happy and feel like we are doing exactly what the Lord would have us do. We pray for inspiration daily and can feel the prayers of many of you in our lives. Thanks for that blessing. I am including a picture of the huge Art Gallery in downtown London that we went to a couple of weeks ago. It has paintings from most of the great masters, such as DaVinci, Van Gogh, Picasso, Cezanne, etc.